1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an automatic telephone call distributor system and, more particularly, to an automatic call distributor system with an emergency recording system having at least one recorder for selectively recording multiple calls from multiple internal telephonic units of an internal telephonic network and a method of recording emergency messages.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 C.F.R. .intg.1.97-1.99
Automatic call distributors employing a switch controlled by a central processing unit for selectively interconnecting a plurality of external units of an external telephonic network with a total plurality of internal units of an internal network of the call distributor are well known. Examples are shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/770,197 of Jones et al., filed Oct. 2, 1991 entitled "Multichannel Telephonic Switching Network With Different Signaling Formats and Connect/PBX Treatment Selectable For Each Channel"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,611 of Jones et al., issued Aug. 18, 1992 entitled "Pulse Modulated Self-Clocking and Self-Synchronizing Data Transmission and Method For a Telephonic Communication Switching System" and U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,004 of Lenihan et al., issued Jun. 30, 1992 entitled "Tone and Announcement Message Code Generator For a Telephonic Switching System and Method".
It is also known in such distributors to use a recording device to record nuisance, threatening or emergency calls. Often, a recorder in the known systems is activated by actuating a key switch on the console of the internal telephonic unit requesting a call to be recorded. A backup recording device is optionally available to be used if a failure is detected on the first recorder. Disadvantageously, however, if the recording device is already in use, additional emergency calls will not be recorded.
In known systems, the operators of the internal telephonic units are often stationed at locations remote from the recording device used to record emergency calls. Consequently,the recordings cannot be played back to the operators at the remote sites. Additionally, in known systems, the emergency messages are recorded on mechanical tape recorders prone to mechanical wear and resultant failure. When these tape recorders are taken out of service to be repaired they are not capable of recording calls. Since, only one system recorder and one backup recorder are used in known systems, the relative use of the recorders is inflexible and limited, since only one call can be recorded at a time. Moreover, since the system recorder is shared among all the operators of the call distributor system, there are no groups of recorders which correspond to different groups of operators handling different types of calls. Thus, all the different types of recorded calls are recorded at only one location at the system, and it is difficult to correlate the recorded messages with the different types of recorded calls, the types of operator (i.e. agent, supervisor, trainee) and the identity of the internal unit requesting the recording.